Jane Goodall said that tiny changes by millions of people can help save the planet (Picture: Getty)

Dr Jane set up her Roots and Shoots programme in 1991 with the aim of implementing positive changes for people, animals and the environment.

Advertisement

Advertisement

She told Metro.co.uk: ‘This came at a time when I was meeting more and more young people around the world who seemed to have not much hope for the future.

‘When I talked to these young people, they basically all said the same that we, the older generation, have compromised their future and there’s nothing they can do about it.

‘We have been stealing their future and we are still stealing their future now.

‘It’s getting worse with some of the far right governments who put economic development ahead of protection of the environment.

‘But when the young people said there was nothing they could do about it, that’s when I thought, “No, we’ve still got a window of time. There is hope.”

‘And so Roots and Shoots has as its main message that every one of us matters.

‘Every one of us makes some impact on the world every single day and we get to choose what sort of impact we make.’

Jane Goodall said that young people like Greta Thunberg give her hope for the future (Picture: Greta Thunberg)

People in the west consume far more than in developing countries (Picture: Getty)

Dr Jane pointed out that people in the West consume five times the amount of those in developing countries, and urged everyone to think about how much plastic they use, for instance.

She continued: ‘People living in dire poverty can’t afford to worry about the environment.

‘They have to buy the cheapest food. You can’t think about suffering in animals like intensive farms or food that is cheap because of slave labour – you have to buy the cheapest to survive.

Advertisement

Advertisement

‘And on the other hand is the unsustainable lifestyle. So many people have so much more than they need. It’s a throwaway society, we need to learn to value things.’

Dr Jane Goodall made scientific breakthroughs with her work in Gombe, Tanzania (Picture: National Geographic)

First scientist who saw the ‘human’ in chimps

Jane Goodall made history with her pioneering work with the chimpanzees in east Africa’s Gombe National Park.

Her groundbreaking research began in 1960. It saw her become the first person to see creatures other than humans make and use tools.

She also found that our nearest evolutionary cousins had emotions and formed powerful family bonds.

As a woman in what was then very much more of a man’s world, she has been hailed as a hero to budding female scientists.

Dr Jane explained: ‘When I began, I was 10 years old and dreamed of going to Africa to live with wild animals.

‘Everybody laughed at me. Women didn’t become scientists in those days and they certainly didn’t go off into the wilds of the jungle.

‘And so I was told to dream about something I could achieve. Except Mum. She said, “If you really want this, you’re going to have to work awfully hard, take advantage of every opportunity but don’t give up.”

‘And that’s the message I have taken to young people, not just girls.

‘I wish Mum was alive to know how many people have come up to me to say, “Jane, I want to thank you. You have taught me because you did it and so I can do it too.”

‘Things do seem to have worked out for me so that, in a way, I can be a sort of role model.’

After two years with the chimps in remote Tanzania, Dr Jane went to Cambridge University to get her PhD – only the eighth person to undertake the advanced degree without having an undergraduate qualification first.

She recalled: ‘I was told by the professors that I had done everything wrong — chimps should have had numbers and not names.

‘I was told I couldn’t talk about their personalities, minds or emotions because they were unique to humans.

‘Luckily, I had a wonderful teacher as a child and he taught me that wasn’t true. And that was my dog Rusty.’

Dr Jane’s discovery that chimps are a mirror to human society was hailed as ‘one of the greatest achievements of 20th century scholarship’.

She now travels for 300 days a year speaking about the environment, noting: ‘I realised that we could not even try to protect the chimpanzees and their habitats unless we help people find ways of making a living without destroying the environment.’

Dr Jane now travels for 300 days a year spreading her message of hope (Picture: PA)

Dr Jane is also patron of Population Matters, a charity that campaigns to achieve a sustainable human population.

Advertisement

The population is expected to grow by two billion people within the next three decades, putting huge pressure on food, land and water resources.

The mum of one continued: ‘It’s predicted that by 2050, there will be 9.7 billion people on the planet.

‘And already we are using up many natural resources before nature can replenish them.

‘So, if we simply carry on with business as usual, that will be the end of life as we know it.’

She has called for improved access to birth control across the globe so women can choose the size and spacing of their families.

Dr Jane said she was troubled by the rise of right-wing governments across the world, including Donald Trump in the US (Picture: Getty)